Bio-Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles Using Cannabis sativa Seed Extracts and Its Anticancer Effects

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles bio-synthesized with Cannabis sativa extracts have low energy consumption and raw material usage, high antibacterial effect, easy production conditions, and low toxicity. With these advantages, it can be a natural alternative to drug delivery systems used in cancer treatments. Therefore, the effects of bio-synthesized nanosilver on A549 lung cancer cells were investigated. The synthesized AgNPs were first confirmed in terms of color changes, absorbance in UV-Vis spectrophotometry, morphological appearance in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, and EDS. Visible blackish color development was noticed during the 1-h production period, with a rising peak recorded at 420 nm and an average size of 43 nm; highly triangular and quasi-spherical AgNPs were observed in the SEM images. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed that phenolic groups from plant extracts formed new chemical bonds with AgNPs. AgNPs were determined to be 280% more effective against E. coli and 85% against S. aureus bacteria, one of the ampicillin antibiotics. In the MTT test, different concentrations of AgNPs capped with Cannabis sativa extracts showed a 100% inhibitory effect at 375 mu g mL(-1) against the A549 liver cancer cell line after 48 h of exposure. In this study, tests were performed only on A549 lung cancer cells. It revealed that AgNPs synthesized from extracts of Cannabis sativa seeds could be used as a potential candidate to develop nanomedicines for the treatment of lung cancer in the near future. It has been determined that treatment opportunities can be increased with studies on cells of different cancer diseases.